In Armenia, many information repositories have some computing technology and internet connectivity, but they do not yet have the capability for putting their archives online in a format compatible with others. Additionally, they face the challenge that many Armenian archives began digitising between the mid 1980s and 1990s using WinISIS system; since this system pre-dates the internet, it is not web based and is not UNICODE compatible.

Selected during the EIFL-FOSS call for pilot projects, the project’s goal was to pilot J-ISIS as a tool that could allow archives and resource centres to directly replace their existing WinISIS systems with a J-ISIS one that would allow internet access and UNICODE compatibility. During this pilot project, J-ISIS will be tested and recommendations will be produced on the suitability and potential for using this system in archives across Armenia.

§  J-ISIS was installed and learned that it is only fully UNICODE compatible for Latin-based scripts, and is still not handling others – including Armenian – correctly. The developers are actively working to resolve this issue (January 2012)

§  Staff from the National Archives and Fundamental Scientific Library are ready to implement J-ISIS when the above mentioned minor problems will be resolved.

§  The J-ISIS system will be included in the curricula of the ‘Library and Information Science’ school at the National Academy of Sciences.

Case study

The full final report from the J-ISIS Pilot project in Armenia is available below and there is also available an executive overview of the pilot report.

Related Links

J-ISIS is software for creating, updating and searching textual databases utilising a web interface. It is Unicode based, an advantage for users requiring extended characters or different alphabets. It has been developed by UNESCO as a multiplatform modular, easy maintainable and extensible FOSS ISIS suite that would provide the same successful concepts and functionalities as the existing ISIS suite (CDS-ISIS, Win-ISIS etc) whilst removing the restrictions. One of the objectives was also to keep the assets and experience of the users.  

J-ISIS homepage

Download page 

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